Electric Zoo Festival to Have Attendees Watch a 2-Minute Anti-Drug Film

In an effort to curb drug use at their EDM festivals, promoter Made Event is launching a new anti-drug effort called “Come to Life” ahead of Electric Zoo, the popular three-day event held at New York City’s Randall’s Island over Labor Day weekend (August 29 – 31). The announcement comes days after a suspect was arrested and charged with a drug-related death at Electric Zoo 2013. The efforts will encourage concert goers to seek a more “organic” experience by taking in the light shows and the crowd’s energy, instead of using MDMA, or Molly, as it’s commonly called.

“Molly can cause you to not only miss the moment, alienate your friends and have an overall adverse and unpleasant experience…but can also make you sick and can even be fatal,” said event founders Laura De Palma and Mike Bindra in a joint statement. “Fans will experience how great it is to ‘Come to Life’ at our concerts from lights, sounds and crowds.”

The “Come to Life” campaign has a rather unconventional twist to it. For concertgoers to enter the festival grounds, they must watch a two-minute video called “The Molly” – after this is completed, their entrance wristbands will be activated. “Dexter” creator James Manos, Jr. wrote and directed “The Molly.”

This latest move follows an earlier promise by Electric Zoo to crack down on illegal use of substances. This past April, De Palma and Bindra said that drug-sniffing dogs and more undercover cops would be used at the 2014 festival.